


Sun and Stars

by ViolettaValery



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-09-26 03:50:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20383198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViolettaValery/pseuds/ViolettaValery
Summary: “He’s coming with us,” Michael explains, and beside him, Alex tries to stand as tall and sure as he can. To impress upon these interstellar beings that he doesn’t balk at the thought of this journey.The alien frowns. “Our ship is not built to support human life,” she says. “Neither is our planet.”And just like that, Alex cannot breathe, because the stars – Michael’s stars – are being ripped from them.





	Sun and Stars

They find one, last, active Project Sheppard facility.

The details are easy to discover on the drives they stole from Caulfield, because the military simultaneously excels at running under-the-radar, top-secret projects and fails to compartmentalize intelligence about them from those already in the know.

The facility is a short drive, just over the border with Texas, and it potentially holds all that is left of the people of Antar. Kyle accompanies them on the rescue mission, which goes horribly awry as they discover that Project Sheppard is not nearly as defunct as any of them had thought. On the contrary, Jesse’s unsanctioned project turns out to be just a cover for an operation drowning in money and resources, and they run for their lives out of the facility with the small handful of aliens that had survived the past seventy years. 

Alex slips easily into his role as the mission leader. “Kyle, take the bigger truck and drive in the opposite direction. You’ll be our decoy,” he orders. “We’ll take the smaller one and drive to safety.” It’s probably too much to hope for that they’d only follow one truck, but at least Kyle will be safer if he’s caught without escaped aliens in his vehicle. 

Kyle obeys promptly, his surgeon’s training having taught him to act immediately and ask questions later in a high-pressure situation. Michael, too, shockingly offers no protests, instead clambering into the front seat beside Alex while the aliens pile into the back - a tight fit, but bearable. 

“We have no choice but to leave the planet,” one of the elder ones– Toran – says as the truck careens wildly, Michael using his powers to make it go faster. “Our only chance at survival is to leave,  _ now.  _ Before they catch us again.”

He has a point. The plan had been to hide them in the caves with the pods until a more long-term solution could be found, but now, with practically the entire Air Force after the small handful of elderly, tired, and traumatized aliens, it becomes clear that it’s impossible. 

“And what if Antar lies in ruin?” Alex asks. From the hints they’ve let fall, they’ve all but corroborated Noah’s story of a war-torn planet. 

“We have to take that chance. You cannot hope to hide us for any reasonable length of time with the kind of might and technology your military has.”

Michael shares a minute glance with Alex, but they both know what Toran says is true. Even now, they likely have satellites being retasked and possibly even drones being deployed to recover some of the U.S. military’s most valuable assets. Not to mention the trackable nanotechnology Lorika insists she can  _ feel  _ inside her veins; they’d injected her with something other than a serum during their last experiment. 

“I have a ship,” Michael offers. “I put the one we crashed in back together.” He exchanges another glance with Alex. 

They’ve discussed this. Michael has always wanted to see where he came from, but, as it turned out, he also refused to leave the planet if Alex was still on it. Not when they’d spent a decade apart already and there was no telling how long he’d be away for. Not when their best understanding of lightspeed travel suggests that decades could pass for Alex while only hours do for Michael. Not if there was a chance, however small, that he wouldn’t be able to come back. So there had been only one logical solution: Alex would come.

“I want to see your home, Michael” he’d said, as if leaving everything he had ever known – even temporarily - was as simple as driving to Nebraska. “And there’s nothing on this planet more important than you.”

“That ship can probably make one trip,” Lorika offers. “It was in bad shape when it crashed. It’s a miracle that you’ve put it back together, but it should get us there.”

“And getting back?” Michael asks.

“Back?” She looks at him in confusion. “Antar is our home, however broken. It is clear we have no chance at a life here, so we must rebuild there.” It goes unsaid that they may have to rebuild their civilization from the ashes, without technology to light the streets, let alone build a spacefaring vehicle.

It goes unsaid, but Alex hears it nonetheless. The whole conversation is like an escalating game of impossible choices, and as Alex looks back, he thinks that’s what his life has been since he met Michael.

“I want to see my home,” Michael says quietly after minutes of nothing but silence. 

“I know,” Alex reassures. 

The drive to the ship is unbearably long. Alex’s cabin had come with land, and he’d bought more when they’re realized that a spaceship couldn’t be underground if it was supposed to  _ fly.  _ Now it rests, hidden from sight by an uncharacteristic spot of hilliness in the New Mexico desert and some recently-planted trees. 

Michael pulls the tarp hiding it off with his powers - a flimsy covering, but one that has so far protected it from anyone flying overhead looking too closely. The aliens beeline for the gleaming ship, and soon, it comes to life, glowing ever brighter than before. 

“You’re sure?” Michael asks Alex as they watch the ship light up. “Earth is your home.” 

“You’re my home,” Alex corrects. “You want to see yours, and I won’t leave your side.” There’s a simplicity to it, when he says it like that. Michael wants to go; Alex won’t stay. There is only one outcome, neat and mathematical like the solution to a single-variable equation. 

They’d just never realized that solution would be forever.

But. That’s a minor detail. He only regrets that he won’t have a chance to say goodbye to the people he cares about, that him shouting orders at Kyle would be their last exchange.

Lorika comes out of the ship. “We’ve begun the takeoff procedure,” she says. “We only have a few minutes. Now is the time to say goodbye to your friend.” She turns to Alex. “Thank you, for helping us. It is comforting to know that not all humans want to destroy us.”

If only she knew, Alex thinks, that this particular human’s family is responsible for their suffering. She will have to know that painful truth one day, and he does not relish it when it comes.

“He’s coming with us,” Michael explains, and beside him, Alex tries to stand as tall and sure as he can. To impress upon these interstellar beings that he doesn’t balk at the thought of this journey.

Lorika frowns. “Our ship is not built to support human life,” she says. “Neither is our planet.”

And just like that, Alex cannot breathe, because the stars –  _ Michael’s  _ stars – are being ripped from them.

“What do you mean, it can’t support human life?” Michael demands. “This planet supports us. There has to be a way – “

Lorika shakes her head. “Interstellar travel is complex and takes a toll on the body. Our ship is designed to compensate for it – with Antarian bodies. But human ones are different. It would tear him apart rather than keep him alive. And our planet is hostile world. Organisms against which we developed a resistance millenia ago, but which would kill him, not to mention – “

“No,” Michael interrupts him. He shakes his head frantically, curls already in disarray flying wildly. “No. He  _ has  _ to come.”

In the military, Alex had received several promotions for his cool head in times of crisis. Now, while Michael scrabbles for purchase as his reality crumbles before him, Alex sees it with crystal clarity. 

This is Michael’s one chance to see the stars, the universe, his planet, his  _ home.  _

He reaches for Michael and touches his shoulder gently. Michael turns to him instantly.

“Go,” he says softly, and watches Michael’s expression shatter.

“Is that what you want, Alex?” 

“No,” Alex shakes his head as tears brim in his eyes. “But I love you. I can’t ask you to give up the stars for me.”

Michael makes some kind of sound and breaks away from him. There’s one last press of their hands (Michael’s left, he notices, like some sort of cruel irony) before he’s left standing, his own hand reaching for a man striding purposefully away from him. He stuffs his fist in his mouth to contain the sob that threatens to spill out of him and closes his eyes as hot tears spill down his face. He had wanted at least a kiss, a final goodbye to remember Michael by, but maybe this is what he deserves for keeping Michael earthbound and miserable for so long, chained to this planet and yet all alone even though Alex was on it. Even though Alex was  _ right there,  _ when one thought of it on the scale of the universe.

When he blinks open his eyes, Michael is pressing his hand to Lorika’s. It takes only a second, but in that second, Alex knows, they communicate volumes. Then Toran calls from inside that it’s five seconds to liftoff and Alex forces himself to watch, wanting one last glimpse of Michael. Even if it will be one of Michael leaving him behind. 

Turnabout is fair play, he supposes. 

But Michael makes no move to follow as Lorika steps onto the ship and the force field snaps into place. In fact, he turns around as the ship begins to lift off and strides determinedly towards Alex without a single glance behind him. Michael sweeps him into a breathless, windswept kiss, and he falls instinctively into an embrace that feels all that much more like home now that he’s nearly lost it yet again.

“Did you really think I’d choose the stars over you?” Michael asks, and Alex laughs through his tears.

“The stars and your  _ home. _ I couldn’t ask that of you.”

“You didn’t have to ask.  _ You’re  _ my home. My sun and stars,” Michael vows.

“Don’t quote  _ Game of Thrones  _ at me, Guerin,” Alex says without any real conviction, because if he doesn’t inject some levity into this moment he thinks he might collapse from the weight of the past few minutes. “Pick a better franchise.”

“T’hy’la, then,” Michael says, and Alex has no words left. Instead, he drags Michael in by the curls for another kiss and tries not to cry too much.

In the sky, the alien ship accelerates to lightspeed, shooting through the sky like a comet, though neither of them notice it.

Later that night, Michael doesn’t stop murmuring words into Alex’s skin until he goes hoarse. “My sun, my moon, and all my stars,” he repeats again and again.

“That sounds like a galaxy, at least,” Alex says. He lies still under the onslaught of Michael’s devotion. Neither of them can summon the desire to make love tonight. He just wants to cling desperately to Michael and hear the same words in an endless litany until they’re written into his skin. 

“A universe,” Michael corrects. “ _ My  _ universe.” 

**Author's Note:**

> This ficlet just kind of...happened. The idea that Alex can't come with Michael to space/Antar just dropped into my head, along with the scene of Michael breaking away from him and Alex thinking it's to leave. So I had to write this to get it out of my head.


End file.
